The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk football team opens the season Friday, and the Golden Hawk defense is getting ready for the spotlight.

A season ago, Mid-Prairie was led by a core group of seniors that made up their top four tacklers. Keaton Duwa, Jason Tew, Josh Slaubaugh and Karson Gingerich combined for 141 tackles, 19 tackles for loss and seven sacks. The next three Golden Hawks on the tackle list from a year ago are all back led by Justin Schwartz with 31 last season. Grant Boyse finished 2017 with 30 tackles and Tom Butters had 25.

One thing that stands out about the returning members of the Golden Hawk defense are takeaways. Mid-Prairie forced 10 total turnovers last year, eight of those by members of the junior class, led by Butters with three interceptions. Defense was a big part of the story a season ago, with the Golden Hawks giving up 32 points per game on average, but in their three victories last year they surrendered a total of 26 points between the three contests. Mid-Prairie defensive coordinator Jeff Murphy talked with KCII sports recently about their preseason work and what has him most excited coming into the year. “I want the opponent to have to think about the fact that they are going to be in for a very physical game. Year in and year out we try to teach being clean, being physical and playing to the whistle and getting guys flying to the ball. Right now it’s a lot of skills and drills. Getting off blocks is something we are really emphasizing this year. Proper tackling technique, trying to keep kids safe. Their positive attitude has been great. It’s been a really fun camp. Just as a group, their attitude has been fantastic.”

The Golden Hawks open the season Friday when they travel to Grinnell. You can hear all of the action on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the KCII Football Friday Preview show at 6p.m., Washington HyVee pregame show at 7p.m. and kickoff at 7:30.